Pilates Preparation For Greater Agility, Quickness and Speed

Squash is one of the fastest sports that relies on agility, quickness and speed. Agility to move to different places on the court, quickness to react to changing situations shots and opponent tactics and speed to actually get to the ball. With this in mind, a friend and Pilates specialist Bruce Hildebrand of www.balancecontrolpilates.com offered to give me a Pilates session.

Here is an excerpt from the feedback I gave him the day after I did only some of the exercises he suggested. He gave me two “blue squishy balls” to work with – both which ‘exploded’ within 10 minutes of use – soon to be replaced…

Bruce,

I played yesterday after getting through the foot part of the exercises and my partner noticed I played well – My feet were definitely more ‘lively’ and responsive than usual. My movement wasn’t at peak since I had several days without playing, but I know what my return to the court feels like and this was much better. BECAUSE I had more responsive in my feet, my balance and anticipation were keener and sharper, reducing the reaction delay – giving me more time to get to the ball. Fractions of a second count. They count psychologically as well as physically – building confidence to get there.

The other aspect is less fatigue by the end of the match. My opponent today was much less fit than I am,  but I still had less soreness on my feet after one hour of ‘pounding the floor’ so-to-speak. Squash players are notorious for having bad feet. Mine are fine because I started playing as a mature adult, but they still get their workout. I sensed yesterday that they (1) didn’t feel sore or tired during the games and (2) recovered much more quickly yesterday that today’s expected sensitivity is non existent.

So I am definitely a ‘convert’ to Pilates.

I am looking forward to learning more exercises and acquiring more quickness, agility and speed.

This is yet another example of what I call the 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine and antimimeticisomorphism in action. Pilates is one of the last places a squash player will look to improve quickness, agility and speed. An exponentially minded champion seeks ALL avenues and gauges each by the RESULTS they produce – simple as that.

I will, over the next few weeks, explain and illustrate in more detail some of the exercises Bruce has been teaching me. Today’s post was to introduce you to Pilates if you didn’t know what it was all about. NEXT WEEK’S POST will have the exercise video for you… Stay tuned!

At this stage of the process, I know very little – all I care about is RESULTS. Now that I know I can get INSTANT RESULTS, I want to and WILL learn more.

Welcome to the 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine where RESULTS replace REASONS for not achieving.